“You can’t see infinity.”
YES YOU CAN.
“No you can’t. What’s it look like?”
IT’S BLUE.
“It’s not blue. It’s black.”
MAYBE FROM THE OUTSIDE IT’S BLACK, BUT FROM THE INSIDE, IT’S DEFINITELY BLUE. CORNFLOWER BLUE.
(Okay, I know I butchered it, but that’s how I remember it, and it’s still damned funny. And it’s from Soul Music)
Any scene where Death gets drunk and passes out:
That’s more or less how it goes.
Anything with Death, really.
That just made me crack up all over again.
I don’t know if I have a favourite moment, but I’m a fan of any scene with Death in. I love Death.
I love scenes with Death in them, they are great. He is a great character too.
There is one scene (I think it is from Guards! Guards!) where Carrott is chasing someone. He ducks down a side alley and waits. He then stick out his arm and the person he was chasing runs round the corner into it. Carrott pick him up and carries him off.
Terry Pratchett is a comedy genius.
Rick
Okay, since everyone’s been throwing out comedic moments, I’ll go against the grain and cite one of my favorite emotional moments from Pratchett’s stuff.
Assuming I didn’t mangle everything in my memory, it’s from Witches Abroad, where Magrat is looking for Emberela. Magrat reaches the cottage, but Emberella isn’t there, and Magrat catches a glimpse of herself in the full-length mirror. Magrat starts to reflect on how small and insignificant she is, and just the way it’s written, I could swear there are violins playing through the whole scene…
The scene from inside the mirrors in Witches Abroad…
The Luggage vs. Krull’s assembled wizards…
Basically, any time Pterry brings out a deus ex machina that he already showed you earlier without you noticing. Examples are Carrot putting a sword into a stone pillar (Men at Arms), or Vorbis’s demise (Small Gods). Or when we learn of Ptraci’s relationship to Teppic. Dammit, he told us, but we didn’t get it! That’s why he’s so kewel!
I’d say Death describing the importance of belief in Hogfather is right up there.
The way Pratchett described the caste of dwarves (knockers?) that have to go into the deep caves and check for gas pockets… without a lantern. From The Fifth Elephant.
This exchange, from The Truth:
“It’s not a —ing harpsichord, it’s a —ing virginal” growled Tulip. “One —ing string to a note instead of two! So called because it was an instrument for —ing young ladies!”
“My word, was it?” said one of the chairs. “I thought it was just a sort of early piano.”
When Magrat gets medieval on the elves in Lords and Ladies. Especially the one peeking through the keyhole.
I’m laughing at everything I see here. Pratchett is wonderful!
From Men at Arms, the one I’ve most recently reread and a personal favorite of mine:
IS THAT SOME KIND OF BURIAL CUSTOM?
“Don’t you know? You are Death, aren’t you?”
THAT DOESN’T MEAN I HAVE TO KNOW ABOUT BURIAL CUSTOMS. GENERALLY, I MEET PEOPLE BEFORE THEY’RE BURIED. THE ONES I MEET AFTER THEY’VE BEEN BURIED TEND TO BE A BIT OVER-EXCITED AND DISINCLINED TO DISCUSS THINGS.
“You listen up right now! You in the Watch, boy! It a job with opportunity!” said Detritus. … “This your club with a nail in it! You will eat it. You will sleep on it! When Detritus say Jump, you say… what color!”
“Can’t say I do. Can’t say I do. Clothing has never been what you might call a thingy of dog wossname.” Gaspode scratched his ear. “Two metasyntactic variables there. Sorry.”
KNOCK KNOCK.
Beano looked up.
“Who’s there?”
DEATH.
“Death who?”
There was a chill in the air. Beano waited…
I WONDER… CAN WE START AGAIN? I DON’T SEEM TO HAVE THE HANG OF THIS.
From Guards! Guards!
The circle of robed and cowled figures shuffled in grudging agreement.
“Okay.”
“Fair enough.”
“Yeah.”
CERTAINLY.
“Okay.”
“If you say so.”
It began to creep over Brother Watchtower that something wasn’t right, but he couldn’t quite put a name to it…
From The Fifth Elephant
“O-kay, it’s all wound up,” said Detritus cheerfully, hoisting the humming bow onto his shoulder. “Where should I fire it, Mister Vimes?”
“Good grief, not in here! This is an enclosed building!”
“Only up until I pull dis trigger, sir.”
“Reg Shoe,” said Constable Shoe… “Homicide.”
“Right. I suppose no one saw the murder, did they?”
Once again the troll screwed up its enormous face in thought.
“Der murderer, yeah, an’ prob’ly Mister Sonky.”
From The Truth:
AT LEAST YOU STILL HAVE YOUR POTATO, I SEE.
From Carpe Jugulum:
“It’s ridiculous, Igor.”
“…he uthed to thay, ‘good webth today, Igor…’”
“Look, just … just go away, will you? … And stand up straight and walk properly! No one’s impressed by the limp!”
I’ve been reading two Pratchett books a day for the last couple of days… 
My favorite chills up my spine line:
Small Gods, Om and Brutha in the desert. Om has said that Brutha shouldn’t worry about Vorbis, because in a hundred year’s time, they’ll all be dead.
http://www.digiserve.com/eescape/closet/Closet.html#Pratchett
http://www.co.uk.lspace.org/books/apf/
Two excellent sites with lots of TP quotes.
One of my favorites (paraphrased):
Granny Weatherwax “I don’t hold with bathing. Sitting around in your own dirt, that’s not right.”
Reaper Man:
“Chap with a whip got as far as the big sharp spikes last week” said the low priest.
nt
From Men at Arms, the whole sequence that ends with this:
“Sgt. Colon was lost in admiration. He’d seen people bluff on a bad hand, but he’d never seen anyone bluff with no cards.”
There are so many brilliant moments but, for me, Pratchett really shines when he miakes to hugely insightful ,hugely cynical statements about mankind.
Ridicully, Vimes, Rincewind, Susan, Lu Tzu… and countless other charecters have had theses incredible insights into the human condition.
I held off comment till I was a bit more into the series. I’m done up to Reaper Man now. My favorite bit is still from the Colour of Magic, though. Tying in nicely with the Cartoon Boobies thread, it’s the bit where when introducing a female fighter Pratchett takes a couple of of paragraphs to have a go at the cover artist: “She wasn’t wearing a fur-bikini or anything of the kind. She was wearing a sensible suit of chainmail.”
In Reaper Man, where Death tries to teach the senile rooster to crow correctly in the mornings. It kept forgetting how to finish the phrase, getting stuck on “Cocka Doo…er…Cockdoo…er…” until Death brought it to school, broke down the phrase on a chalkboard, and went through the syntax of CockaDoodleDoo with the rooster all night.
It turns out the rooster wasn’t senile. He was dyslexic. The rest of the book, whenever morning came, TP would start out the chapter with “Doodle Cocka Flock” or something similar.
The first one I thought of was the one Aro mentioned, where the guards are trying to make their shot exactly a million-to-one. I still crack up just thinking about it.
I also liked all of the scenes in Guards! Guards! where the secret society members are arguing in their tiny-brained way about whether “the pullet has been properly shriven,” or some such.